Services for which information is distributed through a communication network are generally referred to as network services. So-called “web services” are an example of network services, and represent the next generation of web-based technology being used for automatically exchanging information between different applications over the public Internet network.
Web services are the framework for building web-based distributed applications over the Internet. They provide efficient and effective automated machine to machine communication between multiple global enterprises. This automation is bringing technology based process and business efficiencies from technology companies to world leading non-technology companies such as retail companies. Whereas purchase orders might cost $120 to process using conventional processing techniques, with suppliers taking days to process restocking orders that sit in warehouses, new web services-based systems can do the same for half a cent, and orders are distributed to warehouses across the globe in seconds.
From the technology point of view, web services are similar to application services, in the sense that they are network accessible functions that can be accessed using standard Internet protocols such as HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), etc., over standard interfaces.
Web services applications are built with pieces of code and data that may come from anywhere in the public Internet. For example, in automated supply chain management, store front purchases are cleared by monetary agents, restocking orders are sent directly to the factories, and billing information is collected by head offices, each with their own software systems.
The real power of web services technology is in its simplicity. The core technology only addresses the common language and communication issues and does not directly address the onerous task of application integration. Web services can be viewed as a sophisticated machine to machine Remote Procedure Call (RPC) technology for interconnecting multiple heterogeneous untrusted systems. Web services takes the best of many new technologies by utilizing XML technology for data conversion/transparency and Internet standards such as HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTPP) for communication.
Web services have already proven themselves successful in the enterprise private network space, gaining rapid acceptance as the standard way for applications to communicate. Most current web services, however, are hosted by application servers which are located behind firewalls in corporate enterprise networks.
Efforts to support web services interactions within and beyond the enterprise space over the basic Internet infrastructure have concentrated on ad-hoc approaches. According to one approach, different enterprises between which web services were to be offered had to agree on using compatible applications, common proprietary software, custom interfaces and APIs, and common communication protocols. Enterprises also had to agree on data security and the way any secure communications were to be managed. In addition, each enterprise had to open their internal firewalls to let business traffic flow between applications in a point-to-point manner.
Adding new web services business partners in an enterprise environment has always been a difficult, expensive, and time consuming process, since potential new business partners tend to have different sets of rules and standards. Modifications to a new partner's applications and custom code revisions to the enterprise offering the new applications are often required.
There are currently no known deployment and management solutions for deploying and managing an end-to-end virtual (private) extranet web service architecture, targeting a communication network provider's space as opposed to enterprise space. For example, although XML Virtual Private Network (VPN) devices exist, these devices are intended for implementation in enterprise networks behind firewalls.
Existing software-based security products which address the provider's core market, or smaller-capacity hardware-based enterprise class products, do not scale to core network requirements, where a large number of enterprises with various policy/security/admission control requirements might wish to provide or consume web services through the same core network. Enterprise-class products, including server-based architectures and hardware XML devices, also do not typically satisfy the high availability and speed requirements of communication network core equipment.